Oregon SmartGlobe

The globe, once the preserve of geography teachers and slightly dotty uncles, could be about to go mainstream. Oregon Scientific has excelled itself with this completely interactive globe. It uses a supermarket style smart code reading technology and a USB pointer to deliver key information about the world.

For example, if you touch a country on the SmartGlobe, the pointer's integrated speaker can tell you about the weather, the local language, the country's history and much else. Point it at two countries and you can compare currencies, find out flying times between them and more.

The globe is kept up to date via the smartpen. Connect it to a PC and you can download the latest information. There are times when the smartpen doesn't work as well as it should, and this can be very frustrating. Overall though the SmartGlobe, priced at £130, is a wonderful gadget that might finally make geography cool.